1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and system of providing digital signals for playback on media output devices.
2. Background Art
Some cable systems are running out of bandwidth as more channels are being supported and new services are being added, such as high definition television (HDTV) and video on demand (VOD). In compensation, new compression standards are being contemplated to alleviate bandwidth consumption.
Cable operators, however, typically desire to maximize the available capacity on their plants without having to deploy new settop boxes (STBs) or other customer equipment every time a new compression standard becomes available. This can be a problem in environments where legacy systems are unable to support new compression standards. For example, this problem can be found in legacy MPEG-2 STBs and other devices that incompatible with advanced video compression (AVC) standards, such as H.264 and MPEG-4.
Because legacy devices, such as those described above, have enormous popularity and low cost, cable operators face a dilemma with respect to balancing the desire of additional bandwidth consuming services against the cost of replacing legacy systems to support the additional services.